1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to establishing communications sessions between two or more participants and, more particularly, to methods and systems configured to access information relating to at least one of the participants as part of a call set up process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processing communications, such as telephone calls, according to a call flow based, at least in part, on the identity of the person initiating the communication, is a common practice today. In a very basic example, information (e.g., “CallerID” data) identifying a party call originator is transmitted by a central office, PBX, or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) server, as part of a call setup invitation, to a communication terminal endpoint associated with an intended recipient. The embedded CallerID information is extracted and used to display the name and telephone number of the call originator.
In addition to CallerID, however, a substantial volume of information may be available about a community of individuals who might wish to establish communication sessions amongst themselves. Public sources such as the World Wide Web (Internet), as well as a variety of social networks in which users of a communication system may be active, provide a rich variety of data of potential use to both the call originator and the intended call recipient, alike.
A continuing need, however, exists for systems and methods providing participants in a call (or those invited to participate in a call) with meaningful insights derived from information available from one or more public data sources. Presenting participants in a communication session with the overwhelming volume of data publicly available about a call originator or a call recipient, however, has a very low probability of being useful to any party. Accordingly, there exists a further need for a way to access, analyze, and use the aforementioned data to set up communication sessions between participants and to augment any communication sessions so established.